The Honorable Antony Blinken
U.S. Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
Office of the Secretary
2201 C St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
May 2, 2023
Dear Honorable Secretary Blinken,
After your high profile meeting with your Bangladeshi counterpart AK Abdul Momen on April 10, 2023 in Washington, D.C., the Coalition for Human Rights & Democracy in Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh) issued the following statement, which was also sent to your high office.
It is encouraging to note that the United States continues to insist that, unlike the previous elections under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh, the next election must be free, fair and internationally credible. We also urged that the only way to hold a free and fair election would be under a neutral, non-partisan Caretaker Government (CTG). The Hasina administration proved time and again that it is totally incapable of holding fair elections. One may not be swayed by her (false) assurances to the contrary.
CHRD Bangladesh also appreciates the importance the U.S. attaches to Bangladesh in its hallmark initiative of the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS). True to Sheikh Hasina’s objective of sticking to authority by any possible means she likes or not, as well as to appease the U.S., its largest stakeholder, she appears to embrace the idea of the IPS partnership following the Blinken-Momen talks on April 10. Her foreign ministry recently stated that Bangladesh “envisions a free, open, peaceful, secure and inclusive Indo-Pacific for the shared prosperity for all,” carefully crafting it to avoid a conflict with China, a creditor for Hasina. That remains a key point in the IPS.
CHRD Bangladesh sincerely hopes that such a partnership in the IPS does not come at the expense of the Biden administration’s much heralded core overseas goals of democracy, human rights, political freedom, election integrity and fight against authoritarianism and corruption in Bangladesh.
Mr. Secretary, these are also the long-held goals of the suffering people of the country. If any latitude is granted on election integrity and Sheikh Hasina succeeds in continuing in power, there will be little guarantee that she will not resort to her practice of flouting on the democratic and human rights values and making the people pay the price for times to come.
Honorable Secretary, CHRD Bangladesh continues to insist that no fair election will be possible under the illegal administration of Sheikh Hasina. She must resign forthwith, paving the way for a neutral CTG to hold the next election the way desired by the United States.
